"Consider how differently Christian rock functions from church music in
the past. Megastars today supply a corpus of interchangeable–with both
secular pop and other church music–worship songs. Bach thought he was
exploring the mind of God. There was once a sense of aspiration or
striving, through which God was glorified; this stuff is so incredibly
lazy it almost seems idolatrous. My favorite example is the promiscuous
key changes that arrangers sometimes insert for a cheap thrill that, in
more expressive congregations, gets people to raise their hands. I think
that’s a pretty good synecdoche for the music as a whole. There’s a
risk that it rests entirely on a set of musical and lyrical techniques
that are nothing but levers to elicit a certain feeling or response.
It’s all heart and no head."

Touche. I will readily admit I pulled out the old Star 99.1 tunes in a post that was soaked with from-the-heart-emotionalism. But perhaps Bloom has a point about today's Christian music. Maybe it has become "incredibly lazy" and "a cheap thrill." Or maybe, it just sucks.

"The contemporary song hackers are beating words like "amazing" and
"worthy" to death, an insult to such religious tunesmiths as John
Newton, who wrote the original and time-tested blockbuster Amazing Grace
in the 19th Century.

There are religious songs today which use the word "amazing" 15 or 20
times, even more than the worldwide favorite Amazing Grace. And on one
of my recent forays into an area Baptist Church, the choir repeated the
word "worthy" in one song until my head threatened to split wide open.

You are worthy, You are worthy, You are worthy, You are worthy, You
are worthy, and on and on and on went the refrain, leading me to wonder
almost out loud:
Who are you jerks to call the creator of the entire universe
"worthy?" A poor choice of words from a songwriter who shouldn't be
writing poorly-done religious songs in the first place. Even church
music hacks suffer from acute cases of rectal cranial inversion when it
comes to invention and creativity, and they shouldn't be allowed to use praise for the Lord Jesus Christ as an excuse for slop music."

"Why is it that so often Christian music is so awful? I think there are a
couple of reasons. The first is that the musicians and their audience
mistake a worthy message for talent. Then they get a martyr complex if
they’re criticized. “You’re obviously not very spiritual if you can’t
enjoy my music! The second problem is that the audience are often
either totally uncritical or they haven’t the ability to criticize
intelligently. Too often the audience actually like the crap that is
being dished up. The third factor is that market forces are usually not
in play. Market forces often have a surprisingly sharp and salutary
critical effect. Market forces weed out the junk, but in the Christian
market they’re doing it for love, not money, so no one is telling them
to get off the stage ’cause it won’t sell.

These are all the practical problems. There is, however, a deeper
problem. Christian popular music is almost always pretty bad, but the
problem with most “Christian” music is that it is secular music with
Christian words. In any decent art style and substance are supposed to
match up. The meaning and the media are supposed to harmonize."

Over at Tears of Time, D-Sane also notes some of the same factors of lack of meaningful criticism and secular music rebranded as CCM thanks to the addition of some "Jesus" and "salvation":

"In the last 20-30 years, Christians have wormed their way into every
genre of music, polluting them all with Christian versions of songs in
the style of everything from hip hop to indie pop, and of course alternative rock.
But the real reason these songs are horrible is because no one is
critically examining any of them for artistic merits simply due to their
subject matter. If you subbed out the occasional Jesus message in a
song by Jay-z or Willie Nelson, the music would still be great. For
that matter, if you subbed in Jesus into secular music, you’d have a
decent song that just happens to be about Jesus. Conversely, if you
subbed out Creed’s message of Jesus, you’d be left with really shitty
music.

... Some one could invent Christian night club music to make it safe for
the Christian teens to go out dancing while still respecting the Lord.
In fact, a truly subversive musician who can’t cut it in the secular
music industry could easily make millions of dollars by feigning a
Christian message over top their otherwise secular music, simply because
they would receive no criticism. Instant Fame: Just add Jesus."

Third, the metaphors are strained and mixed to the point of utter confusion.

Fourth, the only real “power” the song has is the continual repetition of the line, “How he loves [us]“ as the band builds intensity, à la a million other pop-rock songs.

Fifth, it is individualistic to the point of being narcissistic,
despite part of a verse that, inexplicably, is written in the plural.
Whether one sings the controversial “sloppy wet kiss” line or
not, this turns out to be just another song about “me and Jesus” and how
he “meets me” in my experience without giving any context of the
church, the Gospel, or the words of Scripture. It represents a perfect
model of personal “spirituality without religion.”

Benjamin Drew Griffin, at Pop Theology, goes on a quest for CCM music that doesn't suck, with stops at Amy Grant, Creed and dcTalk. He surmises that despite the abundance of superficiality in the genre, there are pockets of real:

"... What I wish to highlight is an alternative take of what many consider
Christian music. There are contemporary Christian musicians that
evangelize for the fringe, wave the flag for the weird, and extol the
theologically challenging. Like Christ’s table itself, the Christian
music world consists of the sinners, the irksome, the angry, and, of
course, the doubters—music that doesn’t simply sing love songs to our
Lord Up Above but rather those that seek to be consumed by that love
here below. Whether they’re alternative, mainstream, or just plain weird,
everyone’s invited to the table and everyone’s welcome to bring their
instruments along."

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About Me

To borrow some words from Drake, "I'm more than just a number." But if I WERE a number, it would be 7. Since it's God's number, the 7th day is one to rest, and... well, I think it rocks. But if life were a scale of 1-10, then me being a 7 fits too, because I'm not perfect. But I'm not your average girl, either. :-) I'm 30, a Christ-follower, slightly off kilter (but aren't all "ar-teeests"?), and happily married to Keiron, my solid and strong rock. And Techie-extraordinaire. We are the proud parents of a baby girl, Zoe. Hope you enjoy my rantings, don't take my sarcasm too seriously and know that comments are welcome. Very welcome... ahem, HINT, HINT, HINT! But enough about me, time for this 7 to give it a rest. xoxox

"While reading your blog I often sense a certain amount of conviction on your behalf, which makes me wonder why isn’t everyone reading the blogs of a woman who actually “gets it.”Don, at Minus The Bars"A curious mix of the sacred and profane...too nice for a run of the mill blog? "Joe, my brother, author of The Blog of Blogs"Are you really bored or something?"Joscelyne, my sister"Pretty f****ing intense."Reader Brooke Farmer, on this entry.

"A great outlet for such a prolific mind and an entertaining mix of spirituality and current events."Keiron, my husband, also known on here as K, or my Knight & Sunshine